3 taken to hospital after car T-boned HFD ambulance in NE Harris County, witness says
ATASCOCITA, Texas (KTRK) -- Three people, including a patient inside a Houston Fire Department ambulance, were taken to the hospital when the emergency vehicle was involved in a crash Wednesday morning in northeast Harris County.
Photos from the scene showed the ambulance on its side. The crash happened on FM 1960 E. at Kings Parkway just before 9 a.m.
Witness Kirsten Bell, who was sitting at the light at the scene, told ABC13 that the light was red when the ambulance was approaching with its sirens flashing. As the ambulance was making it through the light, Bell said a gray car T-boned the vehicle.
"It was almost like a scene out of a movie because of how fast the car was going when it hit the ambulance," Bell said, adding that she called 911.
According to Chief Mike Mulligan with the Atascocita Fire Department, three people were inside the ambulance: the driver, a paramedic and the patient.
Atascocita Fire says that both the driver and the paramedic worked quickly to get the patient out of the back of the ambulance after the impact.
Two people, in separate vehicles, were among those involved.
When the crash happened, the ambulance slid across the ground, hitting one of the cars at the light, Mulligan said.
There's no word on conditions, but Mulligan said everyone appeared to be OK.
While you may not often hear of ambulances involved in crashes, it happens and it gets expensive.
Mulligan explained that one of Atascocita's ambulances was recently hit when a car hydroplaned one rainy morning and hit another driver, sending both vehicles into the ambulance and spinning it around.
That emergency vehicle will be out of service for six months.
"It's costly. We're in a situation right now where we have all types of pandemic-related shortages of things, so that's adding to the difficulty of getting vehicles back into service and maintaining status, but we're all doing the best we can," Mulligan said.
